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this is my dopamine journal and after 5
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years of trying and failing to find a
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journal system that works for me I've
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landed on this technique as the system
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that I think anybody can use whether or
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not you want to get started journaling
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or you're just curious and want to maybe
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experiment with a new Journal layout
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particularly as we approach the new year
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so in today's video I'm going to show
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you all the three ridiculously easy
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steps that you can take to set up this
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dopamine Journal as always the time
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stamps on screen and the Down Below in
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the description but that's enough
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hanging around let's just get right into
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the video I don't know how much this
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sounds like you but one of the reasons
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that I wanted to start journaling in the
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first place was I heard it was a really
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good way for your life to be a little
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bit more exciting you know I'm sure
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you've been in those conversations where
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people have asked about how your day was
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or what you did on the weekend and for
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whatever reason you know you did
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something you just can't remember what
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it was so you end up just replying by
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saying oh yeah it was fine oh I didn't
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get up to Too Much I cooked a meal
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whatever and you worry that you're
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feeling and you're coming across really
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boring and unexciting and the other
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person doesn't want to hang out with you
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what I noticed and maybe this is the
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same for you is that one of the biggest
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reasons why I was feeling this sense of
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boredom in my life was because I kind of
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just got into a sort of routine right it
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was kind of just like oh I know what
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time I'm going to wake up I know what
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time I'm going to go to sleep I know
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what time I'm at University 4 blah blah
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blah blah yeah you see the problem here
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and it was only after reading the 4our
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work week by Tim Ferris that I
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discovered the importance of actually
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living a life you enjoyed day to day so
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how do I actually use the dopam meat
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journal to do the best part of this
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system is that is something that
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literally takes 2 minutes to do so if
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you take nothing else from this video
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make sure to listen up to this and it's
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something that I call dopamine days so
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if you take a look at my dopamine jour
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you'll see that I have a big double page
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spread with the monthly View kind of
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around the top and this is taken from
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the most recent month just gone of
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October where I've got all of the dates
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filled in so what I will do and what I
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really encourage you guys to do too is
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just write down a sort of day highlight
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from each obul day now in the bullet
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General Community this is something
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called on line a day but there's a few
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key differences between this system and
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dopamine days which you might be
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interested in for me doam me days is all
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about not worrying too much about what
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you're actually writing down just that
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you're writing down one thing a day
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let's take a look at Tuesday the 209 of
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October you'll see that all I wrote down
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was that I finished my history essay but
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then contrary to that you'll see on
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Sunday the 6th of October I actually
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went to the Emirates with a couple of my
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mates and watched an Arsenal football
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game so the point is it doesn't actually
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matter what you write down whether it's
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something something small like grabbing
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a coffee with a friend or just
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completing the hard thing you wanted to
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do or if it's something big like a big
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trip or a big event that you've been
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planning for a long time another way
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that the dopamine days technique really
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stands alone in this kind of Journal is
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that it doesn't matter too much if you
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miss a day or two because in this day
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and age most of us are taking photos on
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our phone so for example for me if I
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missed a couple of days of writing in my
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journal even though I tried my best you
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know I can just look on my phone look at
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the photos that I've taken look at the
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conversations I've been having with my
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friends on WhatsApp or whatever and then
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just fill in what I've done and this way
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you can just make sure the Habit sticks
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long term not only that but if you're a
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beginner in this journaling space doen
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me days is just going to be so effective
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for you because you don't have to worry
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too much about journaling prompts or
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even think too hard about what you're
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going to write because you know that
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it's just that daily highlight of each
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day by this point you've got a pretty
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decent idea of the first part of the
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system but there's a second step which
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is ridiculously simple which if you can
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also Implement into your own dopamine
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journ I think your life is going to
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completely transform and you're finally
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going to get clarity on the goals that
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are important for you to focus on
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particularly in the New Year if you're
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anything like me when you first started
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setting goals you ended up with a big
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list of all these different things that
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you wanting to achieve and it was almost
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like a bucket list there's a huge
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problem with this the thing is your
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energy is finite right you can only
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spread yourself so thin and if you use
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energy to focus on about 10 different
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goals you got to split that 10 different
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ways whereas if you use that same sort
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of amount of energy to focus on one or
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two or maybe even just three things the
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energy goes a lot further so the second
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part of this dopamine Journal is all
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about your kind of monthly goals I've
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been using this simple system called the
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pillars of life to give me some more
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clarity over what I actually you want to
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do to stop feeling bored and to feel
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fulfilled and to feel like I'm not
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actually wasting my time my precious
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time here on planet Earth and what that
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is is basically I'm selecting a goal for
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my health a goal for my wealth and a
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goal for my mindset which is all to do
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with learning and relationships that
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sort of thing and by focusing just on
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these few areas of my life I get a
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really good understanding of you know
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sometimes why you might feel sad or why
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you might feel happier than on other
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days how do use the dopamine journal to
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do this so for the eagle-eyed viewers
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you might be wondering why on Earth some
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of my dopamine days are highlighted and
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why some aren't and the reason for that
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is what I'll do every time the month
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ends and just before we start the new
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one is I'll go through and have a little
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bit of a reflection and a bit of a
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period of thinking about how my month
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went so all that means is that I'll take
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out a green highlighter and go through
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and pick out the two dopamine days that
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I thought was the most not even
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necessarily exciting the things that
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made me feel the most fulfilled the most
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energized the most satisfied the most
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content I highlighted having this
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conversation with my amazing friend Mia
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and you know remembering how important
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those relationships are in your life and
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also actually coming home and and
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resting for a couple of days which was
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something that perhaps I didn't
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appreciate that I needed so much in the
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moment so you want to highlight the two
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things that you know made you feel the
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most satisfied but you might also be
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wondering what the pink highlights me
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you might be thinking that these are
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sort of negative things or things that
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were less good from the month that's not
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the case at all instead what I'll do is
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just go through my doam days and
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highlight the two things that were sort
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of the most let's say surprising out of
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the month so you can see from me here
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how that was on Friday the 11th of
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October I actually hung out with a
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completely new friendship group had a
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really bloody good time from it and here
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towards the end of the month on the
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Wednesday the 30th I had a few days
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where I wasn't exercising as much as I
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would like to went back to the gym and
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realized how much of an impact it makes
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to your life and then that plays into
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the next part of the dopamine general
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which will'll see in the bottom right
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you might be wondering why on Earth
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there is score and how you do that as I
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said earlier there are three sort of
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pillars of my life my health my wealth
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and my mindset but the mindset is a
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little bit more complicated in the fact
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that I need to split it up into a few
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more factors for my dopamine journal and
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I recommend you to do do this too so for
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me that just means I'm spilling my
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mindset up into learning into
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relationships and satisfaction what I'll
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do at the same time when I'm
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highlighting all of my dopamine days
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when I'm doing my reflection at the end
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of the month is I'll go through and
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score these areas of my life out of five
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this is potentially one of the most
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crucial things that you can do in your
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dopamine Journal because for example if
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we take a look at my learning I only get
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that three out of five and then what I
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might do is go and compare it with
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another month let's say
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April and you know I see that I gave you
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a four out of five so potentially at
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that point I can wonder why there's been
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a little bit of a drop off but there are
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two more steps that you could easily
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take in your doam Me journal to not only
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avoid having those end of life regrets
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but actually give yourself some huge
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goals that are going to set you apart
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from basically everybody else and the
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best part of this is that you're going
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to actually be able to follow through on
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these goals and have some pretty bluming
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awesome stories to tell for as well so
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let me tell you what those two things
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are if there is only one thing that I've
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noticed in the past 5 years that's made
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the biggest difference to the feeling of
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enjoyment in my life it is this is
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actually writing down what I intend to
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do because often times in conversations
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you can have these kind of throwaway
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comments oh yeah one day I want to go
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and climb Mount Everest or one day I
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want to run a marathon the thing is all
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you need to do to get started working
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towards your goals it isn't motivation
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it isn't even discipline to an extent
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it's just writing down and understanding
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and knowing what you want to do because
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a goal written down is a goal that at
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least is in my eyes 1% completed so how
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are you going to do this IM you do from
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in general well it's very simple all you
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want to do is just write down a sort of
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monthly Adventure at least that's what I
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call it so you can see in the bottom
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left of the system I've written down my
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October Adventure as have a couple of
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Adventures a couple of excursions in
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London with my friends Cal John and
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Michael Davidson look these don't need
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to be huge life-changing goals just yet
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but you know otherwise if you don't
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write these things down you can miss out
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on opportunities just because time keeps
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passing and you're not keeping up with
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it but the important part of this
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monthly Adventure is having two sections
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to it so you can see how there I've
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written my plan and what I've actually
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done and then like we said when we come
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to this monthly reflection at the end of
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the month I'll actually write in that
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outcome of how that Adventure went and
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for me you can see how I had such an
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amazing time with both of my Maes you
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know going to the the football with
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Carle and John and then with my other
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friend Michael you know we had an
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awesome time too exploring some random
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parts of London that otherwise I
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wouldn't have visited if you make these
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monthly Adventures a habit which I'm
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sure you can do by using a dopamine
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Journal then each year you're going to
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have 12 Adventures 12 amazing exciting
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stories that you otherwise wouldn't have
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had and think about how many stories you
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can have if you do this and make it a
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habit how many stories you can have over
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a lifetime the next part of the doam Me
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journal is the absolute number one thing
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you have to do because if you don't do
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this all of your effort is going to be
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wasted let me tell you why at the minute
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I have three main goals I want to get a
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sixpack for my health a little bit
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shallow but I'll just be honest with you
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for my wealth I want to keep continuing
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to goow this YouTube channel and then
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for my mindset I want to keep building
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my relationships and trying to maintain
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some sort of work life balance but for
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you you might be sat there watching this
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video wondering how on Earth you're
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going to pick those goals especially if
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you have not done this before or if you
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tried before and not had any success so
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what I've done is put together a
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completely free checklist to find your
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three life pillars so to get access to
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that completely for free just hit that
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Top Line in the description and I'll
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send it over to you but in terms of the
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dopamine General how do I use it to make
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sure that I'm actually sustaining
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progress towards these three life goals
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well you'll see that the final section
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in our Journal is something called
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monthly Reflections and like I've spoken
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about in other parts of the video it is
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really really important to consistently
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Monitor and evaluate how you're getting
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on so what I'll do at the end of the
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month after I've done my highlighting
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after I've done my scoring and after
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I've put my outcome in for my monthly
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Adventure is I put in three monthly
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Reflections that relate to my goals so
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you can see here how my reflection on my
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health is that I need to keep exercising
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because it makes me feel so so good you
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can see in terms of my wealth I joined a
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new entrepreneurs group where hopefully
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we're going to share a load of ideas and
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I think that's going to be really good
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for my sort of business mindset going
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forwards and finally for my mindset I
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just put that I feel like my
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relationships are in a great space and
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you know one of your Reflections can
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just be that things are going pretty
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good from that point you can make any
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sort of changes you need to going into
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next month whether that making a
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different monthly plan or indeed just
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thinking of different things you can
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focus on but look I'm going to be honest
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with you it took me 5 years to find this
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dopamine Journal system that actually
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works for me and at this point I've
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realized that there were three mistakes
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that was stopping me from making
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journaling a habit and actually
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committing to this
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lifechanging task so to find out what
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three mistakes I was making and to find
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out what you can do to avoid them you're
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going to want to watch this video here
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so I'll see you all there
